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July 30, 2010

Playing tag

To learn more about what whales do when they dive beneath the surface, scientists use a digital acoustic recording tag, or D-tag. The small device, designed and developed at WHOI, attaches via suction cups and records the movements of whales and the sounds they make and hear in the ocean. In April 2010, a research team — Susan Parks of Pennsylvania State University (PSU), Alessandro Bocconcelli and Michele Pelletier of the Applied Ocean Physics & Engineering Department at WHOI, and Kelly Slivka of the Whale Center of New England — headed out in the small boat Balena to tag whales in the waters off Provincetown. The study, led by PSU, Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, and Stony Brook University in collaboration with WHOI, is comparing daily trends in movement and vocal behavior of right whales and humpback whales in relation to prey in the Gulf of Maine. (Image collected pursuant to NOAA Permit No. 775-1875)